DHAKA: Troops appeared on the streets of Bangladesh on Tuesday to assist law enforcers in implementing a lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) across the country, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) official told Arab News.
“Our army has reached all the districts across the country and met civil administration officials to assess the needs of their localities. Now, we are finalizing the plans on the ground to intervene in the situation,” Lt. Col Abdullah Ibn Zaid, the director of ISPR, said.
He added that both the airforce and navy were on standby “to carry emergency medical supplies to the remote areas” and to “bring critical patients to the hospital, as and when required.”
The move follows repeated appeals by the government urging people to stay at home and limit the spread of the deadly disease.
According to Meerjadi Sabrina Flora, the director of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh reported its first COVID-19 infection on March 8.
As of Tuesday, four deaths and 39 infections were reported across the country.
“We are currently at stage 3, according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), where the community-level spread is not that much in evidence,” said Professor Shahnila Ferdousi, the director of disease control at the IEDCR.
“We are urging people to maintain home quarantine very strictly and avoid any mass gatherings and public transportation. If we can do so, we will overcome this unprecedented crisis,” she said.
Public health experts raised the red flag on Tuesday, warning Bangladeshis of the “extreme risk” facing the country.
“We don’t have any scope to be complacent. The country needs to make an all-out effort to resist the coronavirus spread,” said Dr Mushtuq Husain, an adviser at the IEDCR, suggesting that community halls and large spaces be turned into quarantine spaces.
On Monday, to ensure people stayed at home the government announced a 10-day public holiday from March 26 to April 4.
This was followed by the authorities extending the closure of all educational institutions until April 9, on Tuesday.
As additional precautionary measures, all domestic flights have been suspended from Tuesday midnight, too, while railway and inland water transport services will remain inoperational for an indefinite period.
The government has also decided to suspend all public transport from March 26 to April 4, as announced by Obaidul Quader, the Minister for Road, Transport and Bridges, on Tuesday.
He added, however, that the transport of emergency supplies and food materials will be exempt from the temporary ban.
